greatly
/ˈɡɹeɪtli/
"greatly" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“greatly” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,090 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #4,090
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To a great extent or degree.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | greatly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈɡɹeɪtli/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #4,090 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “greatly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for greatly is 7 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɹeɪtli/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,090 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for greatly, with forms such as "geratly", "ggreatly", and "graetly". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "greats", "great", "gently", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gretly, gretely, gretliche, greteliche, equivalent to great + -ly. The correct English form is greatly, spelled G-R-E-A-T-L-Y.
Definition
- 1To a great extent or degree.
- 2Nobly; magnanimously.
Etymology
From Middle English gretly, gretely, gretliche, greteliche, equivalent to great + -ly.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: geratly,ggreatly,graetly,grealty,greatlly,greatlyy,greattly,greatyl,gretaly,grreatly,rgeatly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of greatly - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “greatly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-R-E-A-T-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡɹeɪtli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “greats” - see the side-by-side comparison. greatly vs greats
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.